The leading revenue earner in business performance management (BPM) applications in 2004 held more than twice the market share of its nearest competitor, according to "Worldwide Business Intelligence 2004 Vendor Shares," a July 2005 IDC report. Hyperion, the leader since 1999, easily overshadowed its nearest competitor, Oracle, with 20.7 percent of the industry versus 8.5 percent. Cognos, described as "very strong" by an IDC analyst, rounds out the top three. "One of the moves that has kept us so strong in this space was our acquisition of aBrio two years ago," says John O'Rourke, senior director of product marketing. "Now we're seeing Oracle and SAP--traditionally ERP vendors--coming into the BPM space and struggling to catch up, doing so by acquiring specialist companies."
Dan Vesset, research director of analytics and data warehousing for IDC and the author of the report, writes that the study indicates "a continued maturation of [the BPM] market, which is leading toward increasing adoption of BI tools throughout organizations of varying sizes." However, he continues, "the increased adoption is offset by price pressure and database-embedded BI tools, as well as strong growth for packaged analytic applications."
The study ranks 27 BPM software providers, and reveals that the BPM field grew 15.5 percent in 2004, to a total of more than $1.4 billion. "This growth rate is even higher than we expected. We are seeing higher demand from IT and executive decision-makers in support of expanded management reporting requirements and process improvements," says Kathleen Wilhide, research director of corporate compliance and BPM applications for IDC. "BPM applications are at the top of the agenda both in the United States and Europe. IDC predicts a CAGR of greater than 11 percent from 2004 to 2009, reflecting stronger end-user planned adoption of BPM systems and related infrastructure," Wilhide says.
Further findings in the IDC study reveal that organizations are increasingly ready to adopt more holistic and transparent BPM strategies, including closer integration with legislative compliance. The market is expanding into different verticals, with industry-specific BPM solutions becoming available beyond the progenitor industry of financial services. "BPM has traditionally been viewed as part of finance," Wilhide says. "Now we are seeing BPM deployed functionally across a number of disciplines."